Where zero is a perfect score

From product design to operations, Raytheon aims for sustainability

From our product designs to our operations and processes, we aim to integrate principles of sustainability and empower our employees and supplier partners to do the same.

In 2015, six Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems sites across Massachusetts achieved Zero Waste certification from the United States Zero Waste Business Council. Also, three Raytheon employees — who became certified as Zero Waste Business Associates — are contributing to the effort to certify another 14 Raytheon sites as Zero Waste facilities.

The Zero Waste certification requires that sites divert at least 90 percent of their solid waste away from landfill and incinerators. In addition, they must have robust programs that boost material recycling, reuse and composting, and promote the purchase of environmentally preferred products.

We strive for the highest and best use of all materials. Where we do generate waste, we reuse or recycle as much as possible to minimize what must be sent to landfill or incinerated. It’s a simple but significant example of our environmental sustainability efforts — which extend from conserving natural resources and reducing impact to operating more efficiently.

A principled approach

Environmental responsibility is fundamental to our mission. From product design and internal engineering to process improvement and innovative resource management, we aim to integrate principles of sustainability and empower our employees and supplier partners to do the same.

We look for innovative solutions to reduce our impact on the environment. These include reducing energy use and greenhouse gas emissions in our buildings and processes, conserving water use, and minimizing solid and hazardous waste. We purchase office and other products containing recycled content and use renewable energy in our facilities. As shown with our 2020 sustainability goals , we challenge ourselves to continually improve on past performance.

Looking back

In 2015, we met or exceeded 14 of our 15 long-term sustainability goals. Our success came with the combined efforts of Operations; Engineering; Information Technology; Supply Chain; and Environmental, Health, Safety and Sustainability across the company.

Natural resources

Over the last year, our cross-business Energy and Water Conservation program met or exceeded each corporate goal around water conservation and energy management. Since 2008, we have reduced energy consumption by 18 percent through widespread employee engagement and education, adoption of LED lighting across Raytheon manufacturing and office facilities, installation of state-of-the-art building automation systems, central plant upgrades, improvements to compressed-air systems, and numerous process-related productivity improvements.

Water is an increasingly scarce global resource that all companies must conserve and manage wisely. So we set an aggressive goal: Reduce our global water use by 25 percent from the 2008 baseline. In fact, we have reduced water use by 35 percent since 2008. We did this through cooling tower upgrades, low-flow restroom fixtures, advanced irrigation systems, native landscaping applications, and improved leak detection and repair efforts.

Emissions and waste

Since 2008, we’ve lowered our greenhouse gas emissions by 28 percent, and we look to continuously improve our performance. Ninety percent of Raytheon’s emissions are associated with energy consumption, so our energy conservation and efficiency efforts play a critical role in reducing emissions. Electronic collaboration solutions such as video teleconferencing, instant messaging and peer-to-peer file sharing enable us to collaborate globally while reducing travel-related emissions.

We achieved our goal of 100 percent eco-responsible e-waste management — which included processing and responsibly recycling more than 600,000 pounds of e-waste. As an e-Stewards® Enterprise Member since 2015, we send our e-waste only to certified e-Stewards processors. And since 2008, we’ve reduced by 58 percent the amount of solid waste we send to incineration or landfill. In 2015, our solid-waste recycling rate was 77 percent.

Our commitment to environmental sustainability goes far beyond the efforts of a few teams. With active participation across functions, locations and business groups, we incorporate best practices and Raytheon Six Sigma principles of continuous improvement into our sustainability efforts.

The future of sustainability

Building on this success, we established our 2020 sustainability goals, an ambitious five-year plan driven by our sustainability materiality assessment. The formal goal-setting process — conducted in collaboration with third-party experts — identified issues most critical to Raytheon and our employees. The 14 goals that emerged provide our blueprint for integrating sustainability in virtually every product, service, solution and innovation we create.

Sustainability inspires us to create and innovate. To challenge norms and the status quo. It is a driving force in our business, our operations, our culture and our people. We believe running our business in a sustainable manner is yet another way to create business value.